There are 4.16 million fewer children enrolled in government-paid health care programs nationwide after COVID-19-related coverage protections were lifted. Nearly 600,000 of those children live in Florida, a new analysis released by the Center for Children and Families and Research shows.
Florida ranks second behind Texas in a list of states with the largest enrollment declines in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), better known here as Florida KidCare. More than 1 million children lost coverage in Texas as that state unwound pandemic-related requirements that kept people enrolled in Medicaid.
Researchers were unable to determine how many of the children who were disenrolled from the health care programs ultimately became uninsured.
But Joan Alker, Executive Director at the Center for Children and Families and a Research Professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy, said there is a concern that a "substantial" number of children may have become uninsured.
"Because they run Medicaid and CHIP the nation's Governors, and to some degree their legislatures, but primarily the Governors, are ultimately responsible for how millions of children are faring during this process. They have made choices and these choices are reflected in the data we are presenting today," Alker said.
To help ease the transition from post-pandemic to traditional Medicaid operations, the federal government offered the state flexibility. But Florida didn't take advantage of any of those options, Alker said.
The analysis shows 3,093,191 children enrolled in Medicaid in April 2023 before the unwinding process. There were 2,503,520 enrolled in December 2023, which is 589,671 fewer children, or a 19% reduction.
South Dakota, Montana and Utah experienced percentage declines of 25% or more in the Medicaid and CHIP programs while Texas, Idaho, Arkansas, and New Hampshire had percentage declines of 20% or more.
Enrollment changes are measured by comparing the number of children enrolled in the month prior to enrollment compared to the number of children enrolled in December 2023. Because of differences in when states began unwinding, some states, including Florida, started unwinding in April, while others started unwinding in June or September. States with earlier unwindings have more months of data analyzed and, the authors note, "may show larger enrollment declines than states that started unwinding later in the year."
Meanwhile, Alker said separate data indicate an increase in KidCare enrollment of 58,742 children since unwinding began and April 1, or about 12% of the overall loss in enrollment since Florida's unwinding began.
___
This is a developing story and may be updated.
No comments:
Post a Comment